Hospital care coordinators’ medical consultations are deemed “unlicensed medical practices,” and their job duties should be redefined, the National Assembly’s think tank said.

National Assembly Research Service (NARS) said some registered nurses and nursing assistants worked as hospital care coordinators. Still, there was no related state certification, and their roles were different in each medical institution.

Such vague definition of hospital care coordinators’ job leaves much room for illegal medical acts, it said.

The National Assembly’s think tank raised the need for establishing job duties of hospital care coordinators in a report, “Analysis on Issues of 2021 Parliamentary Audit of Government Offices.”

NARS defined a hospital care coordinator as “a hospital’s middle manager in charge of planning, managing, and improving the hospital’s administrative work to meet the medical needs of patients.”

Generally, hospitals require a high school diploma or higher for hospital care coordinators. However, they give advantages to those with hospital experiences, and some hospitals hire only those among registered nurses, nursing assistants, experienced, and/or qualified dental hygienists, NARS said.

However, the number of hospital care coordinators has not been identified accurately, and there is no state certification for the job. A certificate is issued only in the private sector, NARS noted.

NARS said that hospital care coordinators mainly deal with client management, organizational management, administrative management, hospital marketing, and facility maintenance.

“Although hospital care coordinators’ major tasks are non-medical activities such as patient reservation and management, some hospitals hire only registered nurses or nursing assistants to provide more professional medical consultation and education for patients,” NARS said in the report.

“However, the job duties of hospital care coordinators are still uncertain and different at each medical institution. So, there is a possibility that they could breach the Medical Service Act when they offer medical consultations.”

The Medical Service Act prohibits medical practices by unlicensed individuals such as hospital care coordinators and consultation directors who help patients decide on procedures at dermatology, plastic surgery, or dental clinics.

The law also bans medical professionals from performing medical practices other than those for which they are licensed, and those who violate the law get punished, NARS added.

Suppose a hospital care coordinator’s experience and skills are used for medical examination, eye examination, and prescription. In that case, it can be considered a medical act, and the coordinator could face a penalty due to the violation of the law, NARS emphasized.

The think tank proposed re-establishing duties of hospital care coordinators in response to their specific medical consultations with patients, such as surgery recommendations.

“The content of the duties of hospital care coordinators can be benchmarked from similar duties of those in the U.S., and it needs to be adjusted,” NARS said.

In Korea, the scope of work for hospital care coordinators seems to be mixed between the duties of “medical secretaries and administrative assistants” and those of “medical assistants” in the U.S., NARS said. Therefore, they need task division and guidance for administrative education, it added.